The Atlanta BeltLine Partnership (ABP) has named the following new members to its Board of Directors:
- Ms. Kathleen Farrell, Executive Vice President, Commercial Real Estate, SunTrust Banks, Inc.
- Ms. Katharine Wilcox Strahan, Director of Executive Search, Resource Mosaic
- Mr. Peter Scott, Vice President of Emerging Media and Innovation, Turner Studios
- Mr. Markham Smith, Founding Principal, Smith Dalia Architects
“The Atlanta BeltLine Partnership is excited to welcome four new distinguished business and community leaders to its Board of Directors,” said ABP Executive Director Rob Brawner. “These new members provide leadership and strengthen relationships with key partners that will help us continue to support the Atlanta BeltLine through our fundraising, programming and advocacy.”
Peter and Markham serve as appointees of Trees Atlanta and The Trust for Public Land, respectively, who are special partners of the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership. Ms. Strahan serves ex-officio in her role as chair of the Partnership’s AB67 advisory board. A complete list of the Partnership’s Board of Directors can be found here. Following are brief biographies of the Partnership’s newest Board of Directors members:
Kathleen Farrell
Executive Vice President, Commercial Real Estate, SunTrust Banks, Inc.
Kathy Farrell is head of the Commercial Real Estate line of business for SunTrust, a full service provider of banking solutions to owners, operators and developers of commercial real estate properties across the country. She previously served as executive risk officer for Commercial Real Estate and held senior level positions on the real estate investment trust banking team at SunTrust.
Kathy has over 25 years of real estate finance and banking experience, including origination, underwriting, capital markets, work out strategies and risk management. Prior to joining SunTrust, Kathy was a commercial real estate credit executive at PNC Bank covering a large part of the central United States. She previously served as managing director of debt capital markets at one of PNC’s predecessors, National City Bank, where she established a real estate syndications group. She spent the early years of her career at Fleet Bank and GE Capital Corp.
Kathy graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics. She is involved in a variety of industry and community organizations, including Real Estate Roundtable, ULI, Central Atlanta Progress, House Atlanta and Marist School.
Katharine Wilcox Strahan
Director of Executive Search, Resource Mosaic
Katharine joined Resource Mosaic in early 2011 after six years with the Lucas Group where she was a senior partner on the accounting/finance executive search team. Working with clients ranging from small start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, she recruits top accounting and finance talent at the manager, director and VP levels. Her specialties include SEC reporting, accounting policy research, all areas of tax, internal audit, controllership, financial planning and analysis, strategy and financial systems management.
Katharine currently serves as Chair for the Atlanta BeltLine 67, a group of young professionals who support the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership. Prior to joining the executive search profession, Katharine worked at the William Morris Agency in Los Angeles. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications Studies.
Peter Scott
Vice President of Emerging Media and Innovation, Turner Studios
Pete Scott is vice president of emerging media and innovation for Turner Studios. In this role, Pete advises internal brands on the effectiveness of emerging media, innovation and audience intelligence across the entire Turner portfolio. Additionally, he is helping to lead the charge on ELEAGUE, the professional eSports league established in partnership between Turner and WME | IMG. As a digital strategist moving through the ranks at Turner for more than 26 years, Pete has helped the company develop and evolve into a leading force in the digital media space.
In 2014, Pete partnered with Coca-Cola, and eventually Mercedes Benz to establish a technology incubator in Tel Aviv that finds the best Israeli technology companies in artificial intelligence, VR/AR, ad tech, data, video and blockchain. The program has been a great success by providing value to the participating companies and validation for those technology start-ups to be purchased.
Prior to his current role, Pete served as the vice president of emerging media for Turner Sports. In this role, he was responsible for digital operations and technology for the entire Turner Sports digital portfolio which includes Bleacher Report, TNT OverTime on NBA.com and the Sports Emmy Award winning PGA Championship Live. In addition, he managed the company’s strategic partnership with Yahoo! Sports.
Pete began his Turner career as a sound tech and editor for CNN. In 2001, he transitioned to Turner Sports’ new media team where he laid a foundation for development of Turner’s unique digital portfolio. He served as executive director of partnerships managing digital and mobile rights for NASCAR.com, PGA.com, NBA.com, and PGATour.com, as well as broadband channels TNT OverTime on NBA.com and TBS Hot Corner on MLB.com. Pete guided the day-to-day programming of interactive content on each of the sites, which includes live streaming coverage, widgets and downloads, interactive TV and wireless platforms. In 2010, he helped launch NCAA March Madness Live.
Before Turner, Pete served as a senior video producer for FoxSports.com where he produced and directed the first live college football game streamed online. Before Fox, he served as a senior production manager of remote operations for Turner Sports, coordinating logistics for the production of NBA, NFL and MLB telecasts.
Pete earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Film and Television with a Minor in Business from Boston University.
Markham Smith
Founding Principal, Smith Dalia Architects
Markham Smith is a founding principal of Smith Dalia Architects. For 35 years Markham’s work in the field of design and development has focused on building more sustainable, mixed-use urban communities, both new and existing. His particular interest has focused on Atlanta’s intown neighborhoods and industrial properties that surround the city’s historic rail corridors and the nascent Atlanta BeltLine.
Upon relocating to Atlanta from New Orleans in 1987, Markham and Tom Dalia were immediately drawn to its rail corridors, sunken below the modern street level and populated by underutilized and abandoned industrial properties that penetrated deep into Atlanta’s historic core. Smith Dalia Architects’ first major project in the BeltLine corridor dates to 1988, and the firm has since worked continually on transforming these places into destinations that support cultural activities, economic development and community identity. To date Smith Dalia Architects has designed over 75 projects in the corridor including the King Plow Arts Center, Puritan Mills, Fulton Cotton Mill, the White Provision redevelopment, Piedmont Park renovations, Trees Atlanta Headquarters (one of four LEED Platinum buildings in Georgia) and Smith Dalia’s own home, the Southern Dairies Building, as well as numerous new multi-family projects.
Beginning in 2003, Markham spearheaded the effort to transform one such area into a major urban greenspace, Historic Fourth Ward Park. Located in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward, this 17-acre park’s central lake amenity doubles as a sustainable stormwater detention pond. Markham worked to coalesce a group of developers and community leaders from this neighborhood that includes the Martin Luther King National Historic Site. Historic Fourth Ward Park was the Atlanta BeltLine’s first new park, winning an Atlanta Urban Design Commission and ULI award for its innovation and design excellence.
Markham has long been a supporter of organizations promoting sustainable urbanism, greenspace, natural resource protection and historic preservation. He serves on the boards for the ULI Livable Communities Council, The Georgia Trust for Public Land, and the Historic Fourth Ward Park Conservancy, and is a past board member of the Georgia Conservancy, the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation, the Atlanta Preservation Center, and the Tulane School of Architecture.
Markham is a graduate of Tulane University with a Bachelor of Architecture and a Master of Architecture from the Tulane School of Architecture, and a Bachelor of Arts from Tulane’s School of Arts and Sciences.
